Memoirs of a Geisha and the Bluest Eye Essay example

Toni Morrison, the author of The Bluest Eye, centers her novel around two things: beauty and wealth in their relation to race and a brutal rape of a young girl by her father. Morrison explores and exposes these themes in relation to the underlying factors of black society: racism and sexism. Every character has a problem to deal with and it involves racism and/or sexism. Whether the characters are the victim or the aggressor, they can do nothing about their problem or condition, especially when concerning gender and race. Morrison's characters are clearly at the mercy of preconceived notions maintained by society. Because of these preconceived notions, the racism found in The Bluest Eye is not whites against blacks. Morrison writes about

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison takes place in Ohio in the 1940s. The novel is written from the perspective of African Americans and how they view themselves. Focusing on identity, Morrison uses rhetorical devices such as imagery, dictation, and symbolism to help stress her point of view on identity. In the novel the author argues that society influences an individual's perception on beauty, which she supports through characters like Pecola and Mrs. Breedlove. Furthermore, the novel explains how society shapes an individual's character by instilling beauty expectations. Morrison is effective in relaying her message about the various impacts that society has on an individual's character through imagery, diction, and symbolism by showing that

Throughout Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye, she captures, with vivid insight, the plight of a young African American girl and what she would be subjected to in a media contrived society that places its ideal of beauty on the e quintessential blue-eyed, blonde woman. The idea of what is beautiful has been stereotyped in the mass media since the beginning and creates a mental and emotional damage to self and soul. This oppression to the soul creates a socio-economic displacement causing a cycle of dysfunction and abuses. Morrison takes us through the agonizing story of just such a young girl, Pecola Breedlove, and her aching desire to have what is considered beautiful - blue eyes. Racial stereotypes of beauty contrived and nourished by

Topic: Discuss the issues of self-hatred and the aesthetics of beauty in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. What role do they play in the novel and how do they relate to its theme?

Throughout all of history there has been an ideal beauty that most have tried to obtain. But what if that beauty was impossible to grasp because something was holding one back. There was nothing one could do to be ‘beautiful’. Growing up and being convinced that one was ugly, useless, and dirty. For Pecola Breedlove, this state of longing was reality. Blue eyes, blonde hair, and pale white skin was the definition of beauty. Pecola was a black girl with the dream to be beautiful. Toni Morrison takes the reader into the life of a young girl through Morrison’s exceptional novel, The Bluest Eye. The novel displays the battles that Pecola struggles with each and every day. Morrison takes the reader through the themes of whiteness and beauty,

“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, is a story about the life of a young black girl, Pecola Breedlove, who is growing up during post World War I. She prays for the bluest eyes, which will “make her beautiful” and in turn make her accepted by her family and peers. The major issue in the book, the idea of ugliness, was the belief that “blackness” was not valuable or beautiful. This view, handed down to them at birth, was a cultural hindrance to the black race.

Sayuri is taken to become a geisha while her mother is dying. She is separated from her sister and has to struggle against Mother and Auntie as well as her the woman teaching her the ways of the geisha. She also has to come to terms with the fact that she cannot be with the man she loves.

In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison strongly ties the contents of her novel to its structure and style through the presentation of chapter titles, dialogue, and the use of changing narrators. These structural assets highlight details and themes of the novel while eliciting strong responses and interpretations from readers. The structure of the novel also allows for creative and powerful presentations of information. Morrison is clever in her style, forcing readers to think deeply about the novel’s heavy content without using the structure to allow for vagueness.

At the start of the novel, Sayuri’s outlook on life is bleak and devastating—her parents are ill, she is separated from her sister and made a servant by the mother of the geisha house. However, despite her grim past, she breaks through the barriers that prevent her from moving on and becomes a well-liked geisha. Her despairing view begins to transition into hope at the beginning of the novel when she says, “We lead our lives like water flowing down a hill, going more or less in one direction until we splash into something that forces us to find a new course” (100). After Hatsumomo frames her for stealing and sabotaging, causing her backlash from mother, she contemplates her life and how it is changing. She begins to obtain optimism, which leads her to become a geisha. Another example of her perseverance is displayed when Sayuri flees from Kyoto due to the impending war. She ends up doing hard labour producing kimonos at the deserted Amami Island and learns that life is never free of obstacles. This signifies her change, as she is older now, she continues to grasp onto hope and look for a brighter future. The Chairman visits her while she is there to bring her back after the war concludes. Additionally, proceeding her working days, Sayuri goes to Tokyo where she spends her time with her old friend Pumpkin, the Chairman, Nobu, and American soldiers. Her powerful will is seen here as she says, “I'm sure most geisha would call it a bad omen that I'd spilled sake; but to me, that droplet of moisture that had slipped from me like a tear seemed almost to tell the story of my life. It fell through empty space, with no control whatsoever over its destiny; rolled along a path of silk; and somehow came to rest there on the teeth of that dragon” (420). Subsequently, the bad omen comes true as Pumpkin betrays Sayuri and tries to demolish her

The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, depicts characters desperately seeking to attain love through a predetermined standard of beauty established and substantiated by society. Morrison intertwines the histories of several characters portraying the delusions of the ‘perfect’ family and what motivates their quest for love and beauty. Ultimately, this pursuit for love and beauty has overwhelming effects on their relationships and their identity.

“The Bluest Eye” is an English novel written by Toni Morison. The novel “The House on Mango Street” is written by Sandra Cisneros. These two novels have a number of similarities. The novel “The House on Mango Street”, revolves around a young girl and her struggle to fit the perplex bits of her personality, sexuality, ethnicity, sex, monetary status and social legacy. These features become possibly the most important factor as Esperanza discovers more than whatever else, what characterizes her will be her capacity to recount stories. Sandra Cisneros’s written work permits her to accommodate herself to those parts of her experience that made her vibe uncomfortably unique in relation to her companions, and she raises a certain essayist with goal-oriented arrangements. “The Bluest Eye” characters associate beauty with whiteness. The novel constantly refers to white American icons of beauty and innocence such as Greta Garbo, Ginger Rogers, and Shirley Temple. Toni Morrison expressed,” Adults, older girls, shops, magazines, newspapers, window signs-all the world had agreed that a blue-eyed, yellow-haired, pink-skinned doll was what every girl child treasured” (Morrison 20). During this time African-American girls were encouraged to aspire to be white. All the female African-American characters in the novel have grown up in a society that does not find them beautiful or even worthy of being looked at by. Pecola is

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison narrates the lives of two families, the MacTeer family and the Breedlove family. The novel digs into the themes of love, envy, and weakness, while maintaining a thick and interesting plotline. These themes are conveyed thoroughly through Morrison’s literary style. Toni Morrison’s powerful writing and structural techniques add depth to the novel, enhancing certain emotions while developing a riveting plot.

In the novelMemoirs of a Geisha, the protagonist evolves from a naïve young girl from a poorfishing village, braves the harsh realities of life in her quest to become a geisha, to become a confident and sophisticated adult entertainer. Chiyo begins out as a shy dreamy village girl that that is born into poverty and loses her mother at an early age and is left in the care of a poor father. Faced with the dilemma of raising girls all by himself, her father plans to sell them, opening their floodgate to suffering that haunts Chiyo throughout her rise to geisha life. In the city, with her new found name and life, Chiyo fast adapts to the art of entertaining men and soon finds herself looking for a danna

Unlike the enthusiastic Western women, women grew up in oriental culture often have more restrained and gentle attitude, and this is one of the most symbolic cultural landscapes in Japan. In the movie, Sayuri chases for love and all she wants to do is to get closer to the Chairman. In fact, before the end of the story, she only sees chairman a few times in all, but she has strong faith to be with him. It could even be said that her whole life started from the few minutes of their encounters on the bridge. This is the typical oriental love, implicit but deeply passionate.

The narrative shift also serves to compare how Pecola and Claudia react to the concept of blue eyes as the ultimate beauty and shows the psychological strength of each girl.